Emerge bearing child close to natural philosopher (9)
I believe the answer is:
aristotle
'philosopher' is the definition.
(Aristotle is an example)
'emerge bearing child close to natural' is the wordplay.
'emerge' becomes 'arise' (I've seen this before).
'bearing' is an insertion indicator.
'child' becomes 'tot' (I've seen this before).
'close to' says to take the final letters (the close/ending of).
The final letter of 'natural' is 'l'.
'tot'+'l'='totl'
'arise' going around 'totl' is 'ARISTOTLE'.
(Other definitions for aristotle that I've seen before include "Old Greek teacher" , "Totaliser (anag) - ancient Greek" , "Ancient Athenian philosopher, pupil of Plato" , "Philosopher - treats oil (anag)" , "Greek philosopher (Poetics, Politics)" .)